New Labour has come and gone but Freud remains at the heart of the political establishment. It was Freud who flew David Cameron to meet Rupert Murdoch, and both Cameron and George Osborne are regular guests at the PR guru's parties, including the one he threw for the 40th birthday of his wife, Elisabeth Murdoch.

But it was his Olympics win – Freud Communications was appointed as the lead agency in promoting the 2012 games – that prompts the PR guru's rise up this year's MediaGuardian 100.

The games joined a list of Freud clients that includes the media giants Viacom, Time Warner, Sony, Conde Nast and BSkyB, and consumer clients such as PepsiCo, Mars, Asda and Nike.

Freud prefers to stay out of the limelight – he is not nicknamed St Matthew of the Shadows for nothing – but he also made headlines this year when he said he was "ashamed and sickened" by Rupert Murdoch's rightwing Fox News, and said he was "by no means alone within the family or the company" in holding such hostile views of the US news channel.

It prompted questions about the future of the channel's management and how much the comments were sanctioned by Rupert Murdoch. Another interesting family chat.